Giselle, along with Swan Lake, is one of the most widely-loved and frequently-performed classic piece of ballet. The first full-act premiere of Giselle in Korea was performed in December 10th of 1975 as the 17th period performance of the Korean National Ballet. Giselle, often considered to be an indispensable part of the repertoire in most professional ballet companies, has been said to be one of the most important pieces of classical ballet throughout the entire ballet history. The premiere performance of Giselle was a historic event which provided a steppingstone for the Korean ballet company to grow further into the next level. In this study, we aimed to ascertain historical truth about the first full-act premiere of Giselle in Korea and to draw historical implication. As research strategies, we collected and analyzed historical literature materials as well as conducted interviews with important figures. Our historical investigation indicated that the premiere of Giselle of 1975 triggered a significant leap toward a next level of performing art in general, not only of Korean ballet. Another important value could be found from its being a challenging attempt under the worst of conditions notwithstanding. In a similar vein, the premiere of Giselle had a particular significance due to its being the first independently performed full-act premiere without any help from outside the country. The first full-act premiere of Giselle was made possible due to the passionate devotion and inspiration of a few major figures

The purpose of this paper is to examine how nationalism has been operated and emerged in the process of establishing the National Theater of Korea and Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, National Gugak Center, and Seoul Arts Center. I analyze the records about the construction of the theaters from the viewpoint of nationalism. Also I examine how the nationalistic view had been expressed architecturally and how the characteristics were revealed in the performances. The history of the construction of the theaters was entirely led by the state during the 3rd, 4th and 5th republics. The 3rd, 4th and 5th republics, all of which had been ruled by undemocratic regimes, emphasized nationalism in order to compensate their lack of legitimacy. The ‘nation’ has worked as a very effective concept to unite the whole people into a single identity, and traditional culture as well as art have been used as the most effective means of raising national pride. As such, the construction of the theaters as an infrastructure for expanding traditional performing arts was essential, and it was actively promoted in this background. At the height of this flow, which began in the 1960s, there was the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the field of cultural production, this paper focuses on historicity in the field of ballet in Korean Society. Using quantitative content analysis of major daily newspapers, this paper intends to examine the composition of artists' occupational groups and professional ballet careers, as a measure of autonomy in the field of ballet in Korean society. This study found that 1) since the 1980s, choreographers of ballet have attracted more attention than artists in other genres, and 2) while educational capitals is still a strong element, the autonomous hierarchy of a professional ballet career is emerging in the field of ballet in Korean society. In conclusion, it may be said that the field of ballet Korean society has strengthened in autonomy.

Dance is an intangible art that disappears without a trace at the moment of performance, and it is necessary to record it for preservation, re-appreciation, and recreation of dance. From the past, the record of dance has been preserved in a fixed medium such as pictures, photographs, dance notations, etc., which capture impressive scenes of dancing and record images and texts, and a moving image that records the whole process of dancing. However, the recording by these media was indifferent to the thoughts and voices of the people involved in the dance creation. Naturally, in the writings of Korean dance history using these materials, the voice of dancers and the people who are related to dance creation are avoided. The dance oral history emerged as a methodology of dance research is based on the dancer's memories of the body, dancing, and life, and can be used as reliable date for dancers and researchers in that dancers speak for themselves and participate in writing dance history. In order to increase utilization of the dance oral history, this paper seeks creative way for application of 48 dance people's oral history transcripts produced by the Korea Arts Council in 2008 and 2009. Accordingly, three types of diagram related to the Korean dance scene in the 20th century, such as a chart for the 20th century dance educational institutions, a map of dance studios in Chungmu-ro, Seoul in the 1950s, and genealogy charts by dance genres were created.

This paper explores the concept of 'Performing Body on Stage' based on the choreographic work Glory which considers the critical point of view on system and body in relation to Korean sociocultural context. Glory focuses on the physical experience of Korean male dancers, experiencing the military service and dance competitions, questions the system recreated in the body, and asks "is the body free in dance?" To shape this into work, the dancer’s reflective testimonies are used as the materials of choreography, and the conceptualized and contextualized structure is developed into the form of ‘choreographic documentary’. In this paper, I refer Judith Butler’s proposal on ‘vulnerability and resistance’ to construct the frame of this study. I analyze the choreographic approach to the dancer’s body and how a ‘vulnerable body’ can be transformed into a ‘political subject’ through the choreographer’s practice in Glory. When the apparatus which are invisible but attached to the body are visualized on stage, the body exposes the social and political form. In this sense, finding the index of precarity associated with physical vulnerability was not only the process of choreography but also becoming subject in this work. Having physical autonomy in dance is that one actualizes the potential of artistic creation latent in individual diversity, not the military body identity, which moves in an interminable manner with the same identity. This artistic act of the choreographer is political as well as aesthetic in terms of re-asking about the nature of the dance and contemporary arts at the same time.

This study focused on the transformation process in which the traditional dance of Korea created new content and forms and wrote modern cultural discourses after the appearance of a modern theater. The construction of a theater established a modern value system including the perceptions of time and space, formation of a consumption structure, and emergence of the audience in a horizontal order. These changes happened around theaters such as the Mudong Banquet Hall, Hyeoryulsa, Gwangmudae and Danseongsa in Korea, and these spaces attracted the attention of the public through the changes of their microscopic repertoires mostly based on the traditional arts. They held values as they provided the public with aesthetic objects to be enjoyed and created a new cultural tradition through the gradual transformation of the culture. The traditional performance arts communicated with the public and moved forward by making an adjustment into stage performance arts in the middle of microscopic transformations that included the star system based on two Gisaengs of Gwangmudae, Ok-yeop and San-ok, a series story in a newspaper called "Yedanilbaekin," and long-term performance of Gangseonru.

Korean traditional dance is a well-established traditional art as years go by. Recently, Korean traditional dances have seen renewed popularity, but in the process, new interpretations and transformations have eroded the historical and spiritual values inherited in these traditional dances. This study is to rediscover these historical and spiritual values by re-examining the life and dance philosophy of Han Sung-Jun (韓成俊, 1874-1941), and how these had been handed down to Han Youn-sook and Lee Ae-ju. The research reviews existing literature with comprehensive and in-depth analysis. Han Sung-Jun, who came from a long line of dance artists who inherited and developed dance practices reflecting the unique identity of the Korean people, believed that it was through dancing that the human body could truly manifest its natural vitality and emphasized patient learning and training. Han Sung-jun's philosophy was passed on to his granddaughter, Han Young-sook (韓英淑, 1920-1989), who emphasized the exclusion of foreign imitation and of exaggeration by utilizing the spontaneous characteristics of Korean dance. She particularly criticized the blind following/copying of foreign dances and emphasized a focus on traditional Korean dances. Lee Ae-ju (李愛珠, 1947-), who in turn inherited the school of thought from Han Young-sook, took the view that it was through dance training that the mind and soul could have release towards full realization of the human nature. She emphasized the training that all of the body's energy sprang from the lower abdomen to introspect within oneself and served as the foundation for all Korean traditional songs and dance.

Korean Fan Dance is the most favored dance by the entire nation, however, it would be astonishing to explain that this dance's history has been less than 100 years old. Korean Fan Dance, which appeared around 100 years ago, was coincidentally performed by two Shinmuyong (New Dance appeared at the beginning of the 20th century) dancers, Seung-hee Choi(1911-1967) and Baek-bong Kim(1927-) in the same period, and recently Geum-do Jang(1928-2019), a former gisaeng (female entertainer) of Sohwa Gwonbeon (Gisaeng School) in Gunsan area, was also known to have performed a fan dance. I had a curiosity about the fact that the three people had different fan dances. I also realized that our knowledge of Korean Fan Dance might have been scattered. Thus, I attempted to research the history of different Korean fan dances while examined the published materials. As a result, Seung-hee Choi's fan dance changed several times and developed without a certain framework in terms of the function and background of the dance. On the contrary, the fan dance of Baek-bong Kim's movements were formalized and handed down so far without any significant changes until the first presentation. Geum-do Jang's fan dance started as a formalized group dance after learning from Gwonbeon, but later she performed it as a solo dance. After the Korean Liberation, Jang's fan dance lost its venue due to the disappearance of Gwonbeon. Meanwhile, the fan dance of Korean Minority in Chinese was influenced by Seung-hee Choi and the gisaeng, but it was widely changed and interpreted upon topics and expressions.

This paper focuses on North Korean restaurants as a medium of culture and tourism. Prior to the analytical discussion, the researcher first summarizes the concept of 'Munyae', which North Korea uses instead of culture, in order to understand the basic historical background of North Korean art policy. The researcher understands dance and art in North Korea as a tool to express the representative ideology of the revolution, as well as the performances, which operate inside the North Korean restaurants, serve as an important means to secure government funds for North Korean authorities. Based on the understanding of the North Korean art background, this paper examines the dual suppression mechanisms presented by the North Korean authorities, and discusses the effects of body politics on restaurant performers. According to the results of this study, the North Korea interprets their restaurant in Thailand as a transformative device to hide the function of the restaurant, which is used as a medium of political support for the communist country while placing it in the tourism industry category. In addition, the North Korea suppresses the activities of female employees, who are the actual operators and performers, in the overseas North Korean restaurants, while allowing performances coming from other countries. This dual power mechanism manipulates the female performers' bodies that can flexibly cope with other cultures that have been excluded from them, and at the same time expects their bodies tamed with socialist ideology.

This paper discusses the impact of invigoration of regional dance on the basis of the need to construct the Korea National Dance Center. Under the premise that the Korea National Dance Center will establish branches in various regions along with a headquarter in Seoul, the impact on regional dance revitalization would include specializing regional dances, fostering local dancers, supporting programs that promote regional dances, developing networks between regions or at home and abroad, promoting theories and criticism of regional dance, and creating dance related jobs. The Preparatory Committe for the Korea National Dance Center is hoping that the center will provide a way to overcome much of the structural problems of the Korean dance field and overcome the field’s overall imbalance. In particular, it can have a more encouraging effect on invigoration of the dance field in each region as well as in Seoul, and this will naturally help to establish the global competence of Korean dance by distributing and expanding Seoul-centric activities across the country. In order to do this, rather than looking at the profits and losses of each dancer, it is necessary to make public voices for the entire dance field.